Top rankings for Yat (New Orleans)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yat is a unique collection of dialects of English
spoken in New Orleans,
Louisiana. The term also refers to those people who speak with
a Yat accent. The name comes from the common use amongst said
people of the greeting, "Where y'at?" (Where you at?), which is a
way of asking, "How are you?" The Yat dialect has its influences
from Louisiana Creole French and Southern American English,
particularly Older Southern American
English. While the term Yat is usually reserved
specifically for the strongest varieties of the New Orleans dialect
within the city, the term often refers specifically to speakers of
Yat, outside of the city proper, and around the rest of Louisiana.

The quote above is a little dated, because large parts of the
Third Ward of New Orleans are no longer German and Irish, as with
most of the city of New Orleans.

Historically, the city of New Orleans was home to people of French and Spanish heritage,
as well as those of African heritage, which led to the
creation of the Louisiana Creole language. This
city came under U.S. rule in the Louisiana Purchase, and over the
course of the 19th century, the city transitioned from speaking
French to becoming a non-rhotic English
speaking society. Similarly, much of the south has historically
spoken non-rhotic English. The city's geographic isolation has
helped lead to the creation of a new local dialect.

A misconception in other parts of the US has it that the local
dialect of New Orleans is Cajun.
The city's cultural and linguistic traditions are distinct from
that of the predominantly rural Acadiana, an area spanning across South
Louisiana. While there has been an influx of Cajuns into the city
since the oil boom of the later 20th century and while there are
some similarities due to shared roots, Cajun culture has had
relatively little influence upon Creole and thus Yat culture.
The confusion of Cajun culture with the Creole culture is largely
due to the confusion of these French cultures by the tourism and
entertainment industries; sometimes deliberately as "Cajun" was
discovered to be a potentially lucrative marketing term.

A Yat accent is considered an identity marker of a
person born and raised in the greater New Orleans area. Speakers
with a New Orleans accent often find a sense of pride in
having a local accent. This dialect is closely associated with the
white population of the New Orleans metropolitan area. However, due
to most of the African-American population living there prior to
1803 due the colonial French era, black New Orleanians do share
more lingual characteristics with the white population than most
other places in the southern United States. This distinctive accent
is dying out generation by generation in the city. Due to many
people leaving the greater New Orleans area because of Hurricane
Katrina, the accent could be dying out at a more rapid rate.

Local
Variance

The Yat dialect is the most pronounced version of the New
Orleans Accent. Natives often speak with varying degrees of
the Brooklyn-esque accent, ranging from a slight
intonation to what is considered full Yat. As with all dialects,
there is variance by local speakers due to geographic and social
factors. This results in many different levels of Yat throughout
the area, marking distinct differences between higher-income people
and lower-income people. Yat tends to differ in strength and
intonation from neighborhood to neighborhood. The type, strength,
and lexicon of the accent vary from section to section of the New
Orleans Metropolitan Area. Longtime residents can often tell what
area the other residents are from by their accent.

Speakers of this dialect originated in the Ninth Ward, as well as the Irish Channel and Mid-City. Slighter intonations of the
dialect can be heard in some parts of the city, such as Lakeview,
the Garden District, and some parts of Gentilly, and also in the
suburbs of Metairie and Kenner. The
dialect is present to some degree in all seven parishes that make
up the New Orleans metropolitan
area, from St. Tammany to Plaquemines. As with many sociolinguistic artifacts, the dialect is
usually more distinct among older members of the population.

Linguistic
features

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Pronunciation

There are also numerous phonological differences between words
pronounced in the dialect and their standard equivalents. This most
often occurs in the form a stress-shift towards the front of a word
(i.e. 'insurance', 'ambulance' as ['inʃuɻəns], ['æmbjə'læns]), or
in the form of a change in vowel quality. Some of the most distinct
features are:

the rounding and lowering in some cases of /a/ and /ɔ/ to [ɔʷ]
(i.e., 'God,' 'on,' 'talk', become [gɔʷd], [ɔʷn], [tɔʷk])

the loss of rhoticization on syllables ending in /ɻ/
(i.e. 'heart,' fire' become [hɔʷt], ['fajə])

the full rhoticization of a syllable-internal /ɔj/ (i.e.
'toilet,' becomes ['tɝlɪt]). This feature is more typical in men
than in women.

the substitution of /ɪn/ or /ən/ (spelled -in, -en) for /ɪŋ/
(spelled -ing)

the split of the historic short-a class into tense [eə] and lax
[æ] versions

the coil-curl
merger of the phonemes /ɔɪ/ and /ɝ/, creating the diphthong
[ɜɪ], before a consonant, in words such as boil, oil, and spoil,
although this feature has mostly receded, except St. Bernard
Parish

And then there are words which can be pronounced differently,
yet according to no particular pattern: , 'sink' [zink], 'room'
[ɻʊm], 'mayonnaise' ['mejnæz], 'museum' [mju'zæm], 'ask' [æks],
just to name a few examples.

New Orleans is
pronounced [nə'wɔʷlɪnz], [nə'wɔʷlijənz] or with the /ɻ/ still
intact. The 'Nawlins' [nɔlɪnz] of the tourist industry and the
common [nuwɔɻ'linz] are not to be heard among natives. Louisiana is pronounced as
the standard [lu'wiziænə] or a slightly reduced [lə'wiziænə], but
never as ['luziænə].

Lexicon

Algerine or Algereen - a
person from Algiers, New Orleans (Still common
in Algiers, but now less common in other sections of the city
except with older speakers)

alligator pear - avocado

All right - A greeting. The appropriate
response is "All right!" or another greeting.

Backatown - from "back of town", the section
of the city of New Orleans located away from the River (formerly
known as the "front of town" now rare), roughly from Claiborne
Avenue to the Lake. (In the early 20th century, this often included
anything back from Rampart Street.)

banquette - the sidewalk

Beebla A lazy way of saying "be able to".

beignet - (IPA:['bɛnjej]) a type of French
doughnut, it is fried and has a lot in common with the sopapilla. Typically served with coffee or
café-au-lait, they can be found at Café du Monde
and other cafés throughout the city.

brake tag - an inspection sticker on your
car

bobo - a wound or bruise

boo - A term of endearment, said to be derived
from "beaux". Familiar to New Orleanians for generations, in recent
years it has spread to some other parts of the States, and
particularly from White communities to African-American
communities

by [location] - to be at or in someplace; a
replacement for "at" or "to" when referring to a destination or
location.

cap - "sir"; a form of address between men who
are usually unacquainted; from "captain"

Creole - this has come to be less of a
specifically ethnic or linguistic term, but now is more of a
general term applied to an item of New Orleans culture or cooking,
such as creole tomatoes or creole seasoning

dawlin - a term used by women as a form of
address, or by men towards women. Differs from the Deep South
'dahlin' in that the vowel is very rounded.

down da road - typically used in St. Bernard
Parish, the term is used as travel direction for someone traveling
to lower St. Bernard Parish on St. Bernard Highway (Louisiana
Highway 46); this is also a popular slang for residents of
Plaquemines Parish when traveling south on Louisiana
Highway 23 or as a location "down da road" (the "down" and
related "up" are in relation to the natural flow of the nearby Mississippi
River; up meaning against the flow while down meaning with the
flow)

dressed - to have condiments on a Po-boy,
burger, or any other sandwich; typically lettuce, tomatoes,
mayonnaise, and sometimes pickles

esplanade - (IPA:['ɛsplənejd]) a walkway;
also, the name of a major avenue (Esplanade
Avenue)

faubourg - (IPA:['fabɔʷg]) a suburb or
neighborhood, used in context of a particular area such as Faubourg
Bouligny (This is no longer used as a common noun, but refers to
neighborhoods, such as the Faubourg Marigny)

naturally nawlins - a phrase coined by WWL-TV
personality Frank Davis (a king of the Yats). It means a word, an
experience, or something that represents a concept that is uniquely
from the New Orleans culture, which embodies the concept of joie de
vivre (the joy of life). For instance, having friends and family
over on Easter Sunday to suck heads and squeeze tails while
drinking Dixie Beer is "naturally Nawlins".

over by [location] - to be at or in someplace;
a replacement for "at" or "to" when referring to a destination or
location, as in "run me over by the store" or "I'm going over by my
momma and thems house"

parain - (IPA: [pa'ræ:]) one's Godfather

parish - a state administrative district
equivalent to a County (United
States) in the rest of the United States; da
parish usually refers specifically to St. Bernard Parish.
Formerly in Uptown, "da parish" referred to Jefferson Parish.

po-boy - (IPA:['pɔʷbɔj],
['poʷbɔj]) a New Orleans submarine sandwich, made on French bread in many varieties; some of the
most popular are hot roast beef and fried shrimp

praline - (IPA:['prɔʷlin], ['pralin], never
['prejlin]) a New Orleans confection made with pecans, sugar syrup,
and cream

regular coffee - coffee with sugar and milk;
not black coffee

Schwegmann's bag or Schwegmann
bag - a unit of measurement; refers to the large brown
paper bags in which defunct local New Orleans grocery chain Schwegmann
Brothers Giant Supermarkets packed groceries

shoot d'shoot- A slide at a playground

silver dime - A dime

snowball - a frozen treat similar to a sno-cone, but made of
'shaved ice' and not crushed ice. A snowball stand will have 30 or
more flavors, not counting 'cream' flavors (contains evaporated or
condensed milk mixed in).

to pass a good time - to have a good time or
to have fun.

to pass by - to stop and visit someplace, such
as a person's house

shotgun
house - a style of architecture found all over the
city. In the French style of planning, plots of land along a river
are long and thin, so the houses also came to be long and thin. A
shotgun house typically has a living room followed by a bedroom
followed by a kitchen followed by another bedroom, with the
doorways all in a row – so named because one could fire a
shotgun through the front door and the round would exit the back
door unhindered.

to stay - to live, to reside. "Where ya stay?"
is a common expression meaning "Where do you live/reside?".

suck the head, squeeze the tail - a phrase
that describes the local technique for eating crawfish

throw cup - reusable plastic cup such as those
as thrown from Carnival floats. See "go cup" above.

Where y'at? - the traditional New Orleans
greeting; equivalent to "what's up?" or "how are you?" The only
appropriate response unless something is wrong is "All right." or
"aright"

Up da road - typically used in St. Bernard
Parish, the term is used as travel direction for someone traveling
to upper St. Bernard Parish on St. Bernard Highway (US
Highway 46); also used in Plaquemines Parish when traveling
north on Louisiana Highway 23 or referring
to the northern end of Plaquemines Parish

Who dat?- Who is that?

Wutsapnin or 's'happenin' -
another New Orleans greeting derived from "What is happening?"

y'all - second person plural, one of the few
common linguistic traits shared with the rest of the US Deep
South

ya'mom'n'em - "your mom and them" meaning your
family

yeah, you right - New Orleans equivalent to
"yes, I see your point;" often used as a more emphatic way of
showing agreement

New Orleans accent in
popular conception

The characters "Vic & Nat'ly" by local cartoonist Bunny
Matthews are stereotypical Yats.

The distinct New Orleans dialect has been depicted in many ways
throughout the city and America.

Benny Grunch and the Bunch recorded an album known as the 12 Yats of Christmas,
which is one of the truest expressions of Yat language and culture. The songs explain much of the local customs and traditions of New
Orleans and the surrounding areas, but perhaps raise as many
questions as they answer for outsiders, due to the fact that the lyrics are mostly
in Yat. The local CBS
affiliate, WWL-TV Channel 4
usually broadcasts videos of the
songs during the Christmas holidays during their evening newscasts
and via the station's website.

Actual New Orleans accents were long seldom heard nationally
(New Orleanians who attained national prominence in the media often
made an effort to tone down or eliminate the most distinctive local
pronunciations). After the displacement of New Orleans resident due
to Hurricane Katrina, much of America was introduced to the New
Orleans accent due to the constant news coverage.

Ronnie
Virgets, a New Orleans writer, commentator, and journalist,
employs New Orleans dialects and accents in his written and spoken
works, including the locally produced public radio program,
Crescent City. WWNO, the
local public radio station, broadcasts the program and provides
access to past Crescent City programs on its website.

A Midwest Cajun restaurant chain based in Indianapolis, Indiana carries the name Yats. Also, cell phone company Boost Mobile used the
phrase "Where Y'At?" in early advertising campaigns.